The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association has added two new sponsors on the cusp of the winter season.
Last week, Liberty Mutual signed on to again fill the insurance category, which had been vacant since the insurer’s last deal expired in 2015. As part of the four-year deal, Liberty Mutual also signed on as title sponsor of NASTAR, the network of recreational ski races that USSA began managing in 2015.
Separately, Shamrock Farms’ Rockin’ Refuel brand of protein drinks has joined USSA in the milk category. USSA Chief Marketing Officer Mike Jaquet said the three-year deal does not infringe on a separate arrangement the body has with nutritional supplement maker USANA.
“Rockin’ Refuel is not a dietary supplement, and supplements is owned by our partner USANA,” he said.
The deals are each valued in the mid-six figures, Jaquet said.
Both companies already sponsor the U.S. Olympic Committee (Shamrock Farms via its membership in the Milk Partner Education Program) and were looking for a brand extension into the Olympic movement’s largest winter sport. They’ll get activation rights at a series of elite ski/snowboarding competitions and media opportunities not included in the USOC deals.
The NASTAR deal puts Liberty Mutual on site at grassroots events involving 165,000 participants at 120 ski resorts annually. In a statement, Liberty Mutual said it was excited to expand beyond its elite team rights into the broad world of recreational skiing.
The USSA still has a vacancy in its Grand Prix title sponsorship, last held by Sprint in 2015, and availabilities in categories including wireless technology, airline, and gas/energy. But inventory is more limited than it appears, Jaquet said, because sponsors have wanted to do so much social and digital content creation with the team.
“If you count the Grand Prix sponsorship as one of them, we’re probably four partners away from being essentially sold out,” he said.
